Puzzler of the week

[Scott MacLean]

This week's puzzler:

I have written on a piece of paper in front of me, a word that is plural and also masculine. Now, I know we don't have masculine and feminine words in English the way we do in Italian or French. But, we do have words that connote masculinity. For example, the word "boys" is a plural word that connotes masculinity.

The word I have written here is like "boys." It's masculine, and ends in "s." Now, I'm going to ask you to change this word from plural to singular and from masculine to feminine, all by adding a letter to it.

You're going add this letter, which is "s," to the end of the word. That's going to change it from masculine to feminine, and plural to singular.

Think you know what the word is?

Last week's puzzler:

The other day, one of the neighbors and I were having a little conversation.

He was asking about my radio show. It took him a while, but he finally got around to asking how much preparation we do in advance of every show. And, I had to tell him, we don't do much preparation at all.

He said, "Oh, in that case, every week, you're pretty much wingin' it."

And, I said, "Well, not exactly."

Which, conveniently, leads me to this week's puzzler question. Where does the term "wingin' it" come from and what does it mean?

Last week's puzzler answer:

It comes from the theater: actors who don't know their lines go on stage and rely on people in the wings to feed them their lines. They are, in other words, winging it.